


The Spaces Between Us

by lazarusthefirst



Series: Five dumb peas in a dumb pod [3]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Cuddling, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Gangsey, M/M, Sleepovers, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 08:17:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5040955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazarusthefirst/pseuds/lazarusthefirst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ronan’s eyes flickered to him, then back down to the table. ‘Whatever. You better not snore, Parrish.'</p><p>‘Snoring is a habit that affects thirty per cent of the population and you are one to talk, Ronan Lynch,’ Gansey said, testily.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Spaces Between Us

**Author's Note:**

> started out with a text how did it end up like this  
> also inspired by [this](http://thetrojeans.tumblr.com/post/131510556722/linneart-adamsrcnan-do-not-under-any/) great draw

It was only a matter of time before Adam’s room had to get bug bombed for termites. Ronan had been saying forever that St. Agnes was about to come down around his head and Sunday service would turn into a mass funeral. Gansey never found that particularly funny, and was more than a little peeved when Adam said he’d stay in a hotel for the night.

‘Why do you insult me?’ Gansey demanded, gesturing so violently that he almost knocked Blue’s soda into her food. Across the table, Adam wore a tired but determined expression. ‘Why won’t you let me do nice things for you. You’re staying with us.’

Ronan said nothing beside him - he was busy dodging Blue’s kicks under the table - but Gansey could tell he was listening hard.

‘I’m staying too,’ said Blue. Gansey looked at her in mild surprise, and she raised her eyebrows and said ’Remember, mum’s got that thing? With the people in my house, staying in my room?’

Gansey’s brows knitted together, and Blue had to nudge his shoulder and say ‘Dibs on your bed, Gansey.’

‘Gross,’ said Noah passively, pale face illuminated in the glow of Ronan’s phone. ‘What about this?’

He held the phone over to Ronan, who glanced at it before shaking his head quickly and saying ‘Definitely not that one.’

‘What are you doing?’ Blue asked interestedly, leaning across Gansey to get Noah’s attention.

‘Ronan said he’d let me choose his next tattoo if I at least _tried_ to get drunk with him,’ Noah explained. 'Which I did, and it didn't work.' The phone was slowly slipping out of his hand as his attention focused on Blue; Gansey pushed it back into his grip as the two put their heads together, effectively cutting him off from his food.

‘Guess I’ll be crashing with you then,’ Adam said, looking at Ronan.

Ronan’s eyes flickered to him, then back down to the table. ‘Whatever. You better not snore, Parrish.’

‘Snoring is a habit that affects thirty per cent of the population and you are one to talk, Ronan Lynch,’ Gansey said, testily. Blue, who knew from personal experience that Gansey was just a little sensitive about his own snoring habits, smothered a grin. Ronan, on the other hand was openly grinning at him. Gansey indicated his mostly full plate and said cooly ‘Thought you were hungrier than that, Ronan.'

Adam’s ears might have gone red, but Ronan distracted them all by picking up plate and putting it loudly down on top of Adam’s empty one. He quirked his eyebrows at Gansey which, from Ronan, was as good as flipping the bird.

‘Ronan,’ said Noah slowly, nose still buried in the phone. They all turned to look at him. ‘How much would Gansey have to pay you to get all of our names tattooed on your chest?’

‘Two hundred each,’ replied Ronan immediately. ‘Three fifty for the maggot.’

Blue kicked him viciously under the table. Ronan cursed and nearly fell out of his chair, and Adam snorted with laughter as his ears finally began fading back to their normal colour.

After a long night of horsing around in Gansey’s room, Gansey kicked them all out so he and Blue could, in her words, ‘have sex and stuff’. They all knew that the two of them would only be curled up on Gansey’s bed staring into each others eyes all night, but Blue did a lot of things just for effect. Noah had faded out a while ago (somehow taking Ronan’s phone with him, a new development) and Ronan delayed going into his room after Adam until Blue physically kicked him in the shin.

‘You better stop kicking me unless you want me to kick you back,’ he warned her, fighting the urge to wince and rub his leg vigorously.

‘Do not touch her,’ Gansey said mildly, plumping up the pillows on his bed. Ronan glared at Blue, who glared right back until she suddenly gave him a loud wink that startled him so badly he stumbled back into his room without really thinking about it.

Adam was already curled up small on Ronan’s bed. It was another brutally warm night so the covers remained kicked to the bottom where Ronan had left them. He lounged in the doorway as Adam retracted his limbs into a position so small it shouldn’t be possible; it was borderline unnatural. He burrowed his head into Ronan’s pillow - specifically _Ronan’s_ pillow, dragged from _Ronan’s_ usual side of the bed, the spare pillow cast aside - and as Ronan watched, he inhaled gently, snuggling his face down into it. Ronan didn’t know whether to put his fist through the door or just jump through the window, but feeling uncertain in his own room was NOT something that Ronan was cool with.

Without thinking too much about it, he took off his shirt and shoes and jeans like Adam had and threw himself down on the bed, deliberately taking up as much space as he could. Adam didn’t push back; if anything, he automatically drew in on himself more, without even opening his eyes, as he felt Ronan’s limbs draw close, ceding the space to him. Did Adam ever take anything for himself, Ronan thought, anger flaring miserably inside him. Would he always surrender what could have been his, because he thought he didn’t deserve it. If he was honest with himself, Ronan also kind of hated that Adam wasn’t automatically reassured by his presence. How the fuck did he not get it by now?

So he readjusted. He draws his own limbs back from the space between them, relaxing his body until he lay motionless. Then he reached out and gently tugged Adam’s arms out from their corpse-like position over his chest. Adam couldn’t have been asleep yet, but he didn’t resist, letting Ronan draw him out, and in doing so pulling their bodies closer together. Ronan shifted until their heads were on the same pillow, foreheads almost touching, but allowed Adam nearly all the space on the bed. Adam’s eyes flutter open after a moment, and Ronan realises he still has a hand on Adam’s wrist. He draws it back with a mutter like ‘whatever’, but Adam, looking on the verge of falling into a sleep known only to the truly, bone-deep exhausted, stretched out his long, beautiful fingers to Ronan’s arm and let them rest there, curled around like one of Ronan’s leather bracelets.

Ronan didn’t breathe. It was like a butterfly had landed on him.

Slowly, Adam drifted off for real, and Ronan could relax. _Really_ relax. It felt like he hadn’t breathed so deep in years. All of his senses were focused on the five points of contact, but he wasn’t anxiously zoomed in on them like that time Gansey had grabbed Ronan’s thigh instead of the gear stick for like fifteen seconds when he’d been flipping his lid over the Pig being a shit.

In the back of his mind, Ronan knew his dreams would be calm tonight.

When he wakes up, Adam immediately goes for the black shirt Ronan had been wearing two days before and pulls it on. Ronan wakes up as Adam's stretching himself awake, and lets his eyes graze over the long length of Adam’s arms, the rounds of his shoulders bared by the sleeveless shirt, the glimpse of pale ribcage allowed by the its wide armholes.

Something about all of that bullshit so early in the morning makes Ronan’s breathing hitch. Adam glanced over to where he was sprawled out on the bed, not conscious enough to take note of his own limbs, and smiled at him. 'She left her mark,' he said, nodding to the purple bruise on Ronan's shin.

'She kicks like a fucking horse,' Ronan replied, coughing slightly. Adam then disappeared for a few minutes while Ronan quietly considered burning Monmouth to the ground, then reappeared with a cup of coffee, the scent wafting down the hall ahead of him.

He sat beside Ronan on the bed, legs dangling off the sides and body twisting around towards him. Ronan forced himself up into a somewhat dignified sitting position and took a sip.

‘This tastes like shit,’ he said.

Adam took the cup back and brought it to his lips. ‘Piss up a rope,’ he replied, before drinking.

He licked his lips clean before putting the mug down on the bedside locker and then reached over to get a fistful of Ronan’s shirt. He tugged him close, warm breath huffing briefly on Ronan’s mouth before their lips pressed together, softly, firmly. Ronan tilted his head, trying to straighten up to get more, as much as he could, without breaking their contact. The morning sun was warm on his back and the silence in Monmouth was total except for their breathing, rushed and heated and close.

When they broke apart, Ronan said ‘The coffee tastes better that way.’

Adam replied, ‘You’re full of shit.’

They’re both smiling and now that it’s over, Ronan doesn’t even feel like punching anything.

Beside the bed, Noah materialised. He’s holding Ronan’s phone in one hand, and steals the cup of coffee in the other.

‘You’re both losers,’ he whispers, holding up the phone to take a photo before disappearing again with a haze that felt distinctly glittery, the hiss of "losers" taking longer to fade.

‘Where does he go?’ Adam wondered, eyes drifting over where Noah had briefly been.

‘Who the fuck cares, honestly,’ Ronan said, pulling Adam back towards him.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on [tumblr](http://thetrojeans.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](http://twitter.com/lazarusthefirst/)


End file.
